The Titans are going to hell! With the plan hatched last issue that the best way to get Olivia out of the contract with Neron is to do a hell heist Nighting, Raven, Beastboy, and Cyborg head to the underworld whilst Donna Troy, Starfire, Batgirl, and Bitewing take Olivia to Themyscira for some training.
The adventure in Hell is quite enjoyable to read, it features a surprise appearance from Blaze, who gets into it with Neron, but most of the fun comes from watching the guys try to find Olivia's contract in Neron's palace. There are some decent jokes mixed into things, such as Cyborg being horrified by the amount of icons on the computer desktop, the pop-ups, and phishing scams that keep bombarding him. I love that Cyborgs hell would be outdated software, bad PC management, and viruses that he just couldn't avoid. This part of hell wasn't designed for him, but it does feel like somewhere where he could get sent to drive him a little mad.
Whilst all of this is happening, the women take Olivia to Themyscira, and start teaching the super powered girl how to take care of herself. I love that this isn't just a 'kids need protecting, take them somewhere safe' story, but that they're helping the girl to learn that she can also take care of herself and doesn't have to bee the damsel in distress. I also really like the fact that Babs and Kory get along, and appreciate each others strengths. Too many shippers who pair them up with Nightwing seem to want the two women to hate each other because of Dick, but it makes a lot more sense that they'd get along. They don't have to be best friends, but they'd certainly be adults about things.
Unfortunately, Nero sends more folks who owe him favours to try and get Olivia, and the Grinning Man, Doctor Polaris, and Gorilla Grodd attack the island. Much like with the last issue, the Grinning Man uses his abilities to get close to Olivia, appearing as Wonder Woman this time, and manages to land a hit on the kid, kicking her off the page. Between that and him just throwing her through the air last issue it's becoming something of a running gag of him just knocking this indestructible child around.
The backup feature continues the story of Nightwing training Jon Kent how to be a detective, and we find out who cut the rope that led to the circus accident. The sudden revelation that the last panel from the issue before was a red-herring makes the actual perpetrator kind of obvious, but the story doesn't rely on the who to get you invested here, but the why. Yes, it's an absolutely ridiculous plan that could have gotten people killed, but that's the kind of thing a kid would do without thinking things through. So I kind of believe that that would happen. I also really like how Dick can see that kids point of view, even though his experience with the circus was completely different.
This story has done a good job at connecting to Dicks past in a thematic way, rather than having it happen at his circus, or involve people he knows. It relates to him, but doesn't tie to him, and that's one of the best approaches for this. And I enjoy the way that Jon is learning from him, and how it's making him feel like he can be a different kind of Superman than his father. Though, there's still the question of who planted the bomb; which we might find out next time.
The new Nightwing era continues to be an enjoyable one, one that features the Titans in heavy roles, yet still manages to keep a lot of the focus on Dick and the characters from his book. He's still leading things, he's driving the story, and Olivia is connected to one of his villains. It's managing to walk a fine line between being a Nightwing story with a large extended cast, and being a Nightwing focused Titans story.
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